


we take another step into the truly unknown

by mukes



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: M/M, and luke and calum are friends and interact maybe once, and michael is luke's guitar teacher, honestly i don't know what this is, it's just a big ball of fluff honestly, they're both college students
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:06:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2714969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukes/pseuds/mukes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing he saw was red. He took in a quick breath as he surveyed the boy in front of him; standing tall in a leather jacket, white V-neck and tight jeans. Of all the things Luke had prepared himself for, he certainly had not prepared himself for this.</p><p>or Michael is a broke college student, Luke needs guitar lessons, and they may or may not duet Falling Slowly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we take another step into the truly unknown

**Author's Note:**

> alright so this is the first time i've ever written a fic ever so be easy on me okay? i tried my best
> 
> title taken from into the wild by lewis watson
> 
> thank you to hannah (aka my mom) for being my beta
> 
> enjoy :-)

Luke hated guitar.

Okay, well maybe he didn’t _hate_ guitar, but he just couldn’t get the hang of it. He’d been looking at YouTube videos and had been crappily strumming through songs for a year or so, but he wasn’t getting any better, and he hated guitar.

He scowled at the instrument sitting in the corner of his dorm room before walking over and grabbing it, sitting at the edge of his bed. He slowly played through the chords to Therapy by All Time Low, stumbling through every transition and getting frustrated. After playing the last chord, he took the capo off his guitar and carefully set it back in the corner before plopping down on the bed, quickly drifting off to sleep.

 

~

 

Michael needed money. 

The scholarship covered all of Michael’s tuition, but didn’t leave him with any money for food or necessities. He needed some kind of income to subsist him, but a college student with a blank resume wasn’t likely to get a job even at the coffee shop on campus.

But Michael needed money, so he found himself at the copy center printing out sheets that said “Guitar Lessons, $20 an hour” with his number at the bottom to post around campus, on trees, bulletin boards, anywhere. He didn’t think anyone would take him up on his offer, but he was desperate.

 

~

 

Luke trudged into his first class on Monday morning at 9AM sharp. He didn’t really care about Physics, but sadly he was required to take it. 

He sat in the back of the lecture hall where he always sat, and a few minutes later Calum plopped down next to him.

“Hi Lukey,” he greeted with a warm smile on his face.

“Hey,” he smiled back, turning his attention to the professor who started to talk about Newton’s Laws, before zoning out for most of the class.

As soon as class ended, he and Calum walked out of the huge room, walking down the hallway in comfortable silence for a while as they both made it through the swarm of students surrounding them.

“How was your weekend?” Calum asked once the chaos had cleared.

“Fine, I mainly just worked on my English paper, how was yours?” Luke replied, turning into a small coffee shop on campus.

“Great, practice went really well!” Calum cheerily replied, turning his attention to the barista to order two small coffees, a muffin, and a croissant for the two of them.

They sat down in their usual booth in the corner, chatting about everything that had happened over the past week as they usually did for an hour or so. 

At one point, Luke zoned out and shifted his glance away from Calum, when his eyes caught a piece of paper on the bulletin board.

“Guitar Lessons, $20 an hour,” He read through squinted eyes.

“Hm?” Calum questioned.

“Nothing, I just need to use the restroom really quick.”

He quickly made his way over to the restroom, and on the way back paused in front of the bulletin board, taking down the number on the piece of paper before heading back to Calum.

 

~

 

Michael was drifting off when he got a call around 10PM on Monday night while he was trying to focus on his French homework but miserably failing. His ringtone quickly woke him up, and he pulled out his phone and saw the call was from a number he didn’t know. He groggily answered the phone, ready to kill whoever disturbed his nap.

“Hello?” He answered, trying his best not to sound like he was plotting the murder of whoever was on the other end of the line. 

“Uh-um-hi, are you Michael?” The boy asked, quietly cursing himself out for stuttering.

“The one and only, who is this?” Michael replied in between yawns.

“Uh, well, my name is Luke and I kind of saw that you were offering guitar lessons?” The younger boy rushed out, and suddenly Michael snapped out of his sleepy haze and tried to act as professional as he could.

“Oh yeah, I am, when did you want to start?”

“As soon as possible, really, I’ve been trying to learn for a year and I could use all the help I could get before I smash my guitar into the wall,” Luke giggled, and Michael smiled at his phone.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

 

~

 

Luke bit anxiously at his fingernails to try to calm the feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He wanted guitar lessons for years, and now he finally had the opportunity to have some, not to mention at such a low price, and he was scared. He was scared Michael would get frustrated with him or even worse tell him to give up completely. He was bracing himself for the worst.

Luke was aimlessly highlighting random words in his World Civilizations book, pretending to read the textbook but really failing to focus. Michael would be there soon, and he couldn’t seem to focus on anything else. He dozed off, until a few minutes later he heard a light knocking on his door.

He slid off his bed and walked over to the door, opening it quickly.

The first thing he saw was red. He took in a quick breath as he surveyed the boy in front of him; standing tall in a leather jacket, white V-neck and tight jeans. Of all the things Luke had prepared himself for, he certainly had not prepared himself for this.

“Hey,” Michael smiled at Luke, snapping him out of the trance he fell into. 

“Hi, come in.”

Luke opened the door for Michael and shut it as soon as he had walked in, sitting himself down at the edge of his bed.

“So, uh, I haven’t exactly given a guitar lesson before but I guess I should start by hearing you play a little bit so I know where you’re having problems,” Michael said, watching as the blonde boy picked up his guitar off the floor.

“Uh, yeah, alright I guess, just letting you know I’m pretty bad.”

Luke looked down at his hands, which were shaking slightly, before trying to play through one of his favorite songs, I Miss You by blink-182. He kept fumbling and wincing as he messed up chords. Michael hummed the familiar melody as Luke slowly fudged his way through the song. After Luke strummed the final chord, he set the guitar down and put his face in his hands, refusing to look at Michael, already knowing that he was going to give up on him and tell him to give up on himself.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked, not really knowing how to react to the boy in front of him.

“That was terrible.”

“Are you kidding? You taught yourself to play that without any help, and you think that’s terrible? That was really good Luke. Sure, you have a long way to go, but you’re really good already.”

Luke beamed at that. “Are you serious?”

“100%.” Michael answered back without question.

Michael was pretty sure that Luke’s smile was one of the most wonderful things he’d ever seen, and being the reason for it made his heart pick up its pace.

“That really means a lot,” Luke said, avoiding eye contact with Michael and rather focusing his attention on twiddling his thumbs.

“So I guess I should try to help you then, did you want to work on this song?”

“Sure.”

Michael grabbed his guitar out of his case, and quickly made sure it was in tune before turning his attention back to Luke.

“Alright, so, your transition from the first to second chord sounded good, mainly because you only had to move one finger, but after that is where it got shaky.”

Michael strummed the first chord and then the second, stopping right before he played the third.

“I noticed that before going to the third chord, your wrist cramped up which made it hard for you to play the chord, so make sure you relax your wrist down otherwise it’ll be painful.”

Michael dropped his wrist down and played the third chord, slowly showing Luke the transition between the second and third chord over and over, before moving from the third to fourth, again showing him the transition repeatedly. After playing through the chord progression a few times, Michael looked at Luke, who was spaced out staring at his face. He snapped his fingers and Luke flinched back and apologized, blush crawling up his cheeks. 

“Your turn, Luke!”

Thankfully, Luke had been paying enough attention to Michael’s hands to see what he was doing and figure out how to make the transitions easier. He was still fumbling with the transition from the second to third chord, though, even though he thought he had dropped his wrist.

“No, no, dropping your wrist doesn’t mean moving your elbow, here,” Michael said as he held Luke’s elbow in place with one hand and moved his wrist down with the other.

Luke tried to focus on anything except the fact that his skin felt like it was on fire where Michael had touched him. He went back to playing the chords over and over until the transitions sounded much smoother.

“See, you’re getting better already! You’re great, Luke.”

Luke looked down at the ground and smiled, feeling warmth radiate throughout his body. He could get used to Michael complimenting him.

Michael quickly checked his phone, realizing that it had already been an hour.

“It’s been an hour, can you believe it?”

Luke shook his head and watched Michael put away his guitar slowly.

“I’d, uh, definitely like to do this again sometime,” Luke said as he handed the $20 bill over to Michael, trying not to sound too awkward.

“How about next week, same time?”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

Michael was just about to walk out of his room before Luke stopped him.

“Also, I’d really like to maybe hear you play as well?”

Michael chuckled as he smiled warmly at Luke. “I’ll play you something next week.”

Luke said a quick “see you then!” and Michael was out of his dorm.

 

~

 

The next Tuesday night, Luke was sitting in his dorm anxiously tapping his pen against his book, trying to finish his homework before Michael got there so he didn’t have to worry about getting it done after. 

Michael had consumed Luke’s thoughts lately. He knew pretty much nothing about the boy, but the way that he smiled at Luke made him feel like he didn’t need to know anything else about him at all.

A few hours later, Michael knocked on his door right on time, and Luke let him in with a bright smile.

“So, what song will it be this week?”

“I’m thinking Therapy by All Time Low, I’ve been working on it for a long time and I’m still struggling.”

“Great song,” Michael beamed, “can’t wait to hear it.”

Luke started slowly, messing up here and there but sounding a bit better than he did when he tried playing a few weeks ago. After finishing the intro and going into the first verse, Luke’s breath hitched as Michael’s voice quietly sung along with his accompaniment.

“ _My ship went down, in a sea of sound, when I woke up alone I had everything_ ”

Michael looked down at his lap as he quietly sang along to Luke’s guitar, ignoring his little fumbles and trips and getting lost in the music.

“ _Give me therapy, I’m a walking travesty, but I’m smiling at everything_ ”

Luke tried his best not to falter, just to keep hearing Michael’s voice. The rasp of his voice in his low register made Luke shiver, as he felt each note settle under his skin, while the effortlessness of his falsetto sent electric shocks throughout his body, leaving his heart beating out of time.

Luke finished the song and looked shyly at Michael, who was smiling back at Luke.

After an hour of working on the transitions and fingerpicking, Luke ran the song through another time and it sounded much better.

“Keep working on it, okay? I know in no time you’ll sound even better than I do.”

Luke scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure.”

Michael was about to pack up his guitar, when Luke grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Wait, you said you’d play a song for me this week, remember?”

Michael stopped packing up his guitar and smiled at Luke. “Right, sorry, it totally slipped my mind.”

He sat back down on the edge of Luke’s bed with his guitar in hand, thinking of what to play.

“Hmm, do you know Falling Slowly from _Once_?”

Luke nodded quickly; it was one of his favorite songs.

Michael played the intro slowly and emotionally, before beginning to sing along with his playing.

“ _I don’t know you, but I want you, all the more for that_ ”

Luke stared at Michael’s lips, watching the older boy in awe.

He began to harmonize with Michael, knowing the song like the back of his hand.

“ _Words fall through me, and always fool me, and I can’t react_ ”

Michael’s head snapped up as soon as he heard Luke’s voice, and all he could think about was how amazing their voices sounded together.

“ _Take this sinking boat, and point it home, we’ve still got time_ ”

The two boys sang their hearts out, both looking anywhere but at each other, yet still maintaining perfect harmony.

“ _Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice, you make it now_ ”

They continued singing together, until they finished out the song.

“ _Falling slowly sing your melody, I’ll sing along_ ”

Michael looked at Luke in a way that he couldn’t decode, and Luke watched as Michael’s eyes flicked down to his lips. Luke began to lean in, not knowing what the hell he was thinking but pushing all logic aside, until he felt the bed shift up beside him with the loss of Michael’s weight.

“I, uh, I should go,” Michael said, quickly packing up his guitar.

“See you next week?” Luke asked quietly, too in shock to say much else. 

“Yeah, see you then.”

 

~

 

Michael messed up. He really _really_ messed up and he really _really_ didn’t want to think about it.

He didn’t even know the first thing about this kid, he was his _teacher_ for Christ sake, and he almost messed up everything with him.

Sure, Luke said, “see you next week,” but he thinks it was just to save face. To not make a huge fool of Michael.

He royally fucked up.

Yet his normal 20-year-old struggling college student mindset wasn’t dominating his thoughts, as it should have been, but rather all Michael could think about were pink lips and long fingers.

Images of Luke flooded his mind, quickly bombarding his thoughts, though that was nothing new. Ever since the almost-kiss, his thoughts were a constant string of lukelukelukelukelukeluke.

Luke leaned in, did that mean he wanted Michael to kiss him?

No no _no_ , maybe Luke hadn’t really leaned in and it was just Michael’s mind projecting what it wanted. Yeah. That was it.

Michael stuffed his head into his pillow, ignoring the voices in his head telling him that he had messed up and after a while finally drifted off to sleep.

 

~

 

All of the sudden, Michael lurched forward and caught Luke’s lips in his, kissing softly at first but soon desperately, licking at his bottom lip to deepen the kiss. Hands were running up and down Luke’s body as he quietly moaned, gasping as Michael started pulling at Luke’s hair. Michael pressed Luke against the wall, deepening their kiss even further and— 

Luke woke up to the sound of Marimba ringing through his ears, breaking his previous thoughts. Of course it was a dream, _of_ fucking _course_. He groaned as he pulled himself out of bed, walking over to the bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face and slapped himself a few times, trying to clear his mind.

Luke didn’t even want to begin to think about what happened, because it just left him confused. He barely even knew Michael, yet he already felt such a strong attraction to the boy and it _scared_ him.

But the dream felt so real and he didn’t think he’d mind if it actually happened.

Luke doesn’t think he could hate Marimba more.

 

~

 

Luke wasn’t really expecting Michael to show up the next week. So when he heard a light knocking on his door, he was a bit confused, until he realized Michael was on the other side.

“Uh, hey,” Michael greeted, looking down and avoiding Luke’s gaze.

“Hi,” Luke replied softly, opening the door for Michael.

The two boys got their guitars out in silence; both refusing to look each other in the eyes, both too scared of where their thoughts had lingered before.

“So what’ll it be this week?” Michael asked Luke, looking at the boy in front of him for the first time.

“A Drop In The Ocean?”

“Sure, I love that song.” Michael smiled at Luke, watching as his fingers moved into position for the first chord.

“ _A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather I was praying that you and me might end up together, it’s like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert, but I’m holding you closer than most cause you are my heaven_ ”

Luke looked at the white wall in front of him, anywhere but Michael, and sang his heart out. Michael was enamored by the emotion that Luke put into the song, watching the boy in front of him give everything he had in this little performance just for him. His guitar playing was already so much better, he was barely pausing in between chords, and Michael was so proud.

“ _Heaven doesn’t seem far away anymore, no, no, heaven doesn’t seem far away, oh, oh_ ”

Michael’s breath caught as Luke’s voice soared on top of the high notes, sounding so raw and vulnerable. He was amazed at how effortless it sounded, amazed at how talented Luke really was.

Luke’s playing got quieter and his voice got softer as he closed out the song, looking Michael in the eyes.

“ _You are my heaven_ ”

Suddenly Michael was hyperaware of everything around him, and time felt like it stopped completely as he held Luke’s gaze. He swallowed hard, trying to will himself to speak.

“That was, um, that was really amazing Luke, you’re really amazing,” Michael complimented.

Luke blushed hard at that. He already had come to love whenever Michael complimented him because he now knew how amazing Michael was himself.

“Thank you Michael,” he smiled down at his guitar, not really knowing how to act around the boy.

“Hey, I was thinking I really don’t know much about you, but I think if I did it could help our lessons maybe?” Michael hoped that didn’t sound like as much of a lie as it was, he just wanted to get to know Luke a little better.

“Sure, what do you want to know?”

“Hmm…what’s your middle name?” Michael questioned, not missing the way Luke giggled softly at it.

“Robert. How exactly is this going to help with our lessons?”

“Don’t question my methods. How old are you?”

“Wait, you didn’t tell me your middle name too,” Luke pouted, and Michael absolutely hated him for being so irresistible.

“Gordon,” He answered with a smile.

“I’m 18, almost 19,” Luke answered now that Michael had answered his question, “what about you?”

“20.” Luke fake gasped in shock and Michael dumbly chuckled at the boy in front of him.

For a little while, they went back and forth asking each other questions about their life back home, what else they liked to do in their free time, and their classes until—

“Are you ticklish?” Michael asked, a hint of something devilish in his eyes.

“No,” Luke lied, voice crawling up a few octaves. Michael didn’t miss the scared look on Luke’s face right as he began to tickle him in his side.

“Michael, stop, can’t—can’t breathe,” Luke managed to get out in between giggles, desperately gasping for air as the older boy tickled his side.

“Hmm, I’d rather not,” Michael smirked as he continued to dig his fingers into the younger boy’s side.

After a few more seconds of incessant tickling, Luke’s body jerked forward, dragging both him and Michael to the floor. Michael landed on top of Luke, straddling his hips. The two laughed as Michael finally stopped himself from tickling Luke, leaving Luke clutching his side and continuing to laugh even though Michael had stopped.

Soon the room fell silent yet was still echoing with their previous laughter, as the two began studying each other’s faces. Luke bit his lip and Michael wanted so badly to take that as a sign, but he still wasn’t sure. The voices in his head were screaming at him to get up and walk away, but he couldn’t stop staring at the beautiful boy in front of him. He ignored the voices and leaned down slightly, gauging Luke’s reaction as his breath ghosted over Luke’s lips. When Luke didn’t move away, Michael took that as a sign and pressed his lips lightly against his. 

Luke quickly kissed back after he realized that this was real life and _wow_ _Michael’s lips were actually against his_ and this couldn’t be real. Their mouths moved in sync as they both smiled into the kiss, Luke’s hands resting on Michael’s back while Michael’s cupped Luke’s cheeks. Michael pulled away after a minute, gazing lovingly at the boy with puffy lips in front of him as he slowly dragged his finger back and forth across Luke’s cheek. They sat in comfortable silence for a minute, both processing what had just happened, until Luke giggled softly.

“Was that alright?” He asked quietly, almost not wanting to ask in case the answer was anything but yes.

“That was more than alright,” Luke answered back with a slight smirk, and again began giggling at the boy on top of him.

“Uh, Michael, my hips are kind of starting to hurt—”

“Oops, sorry.” Michael quickly shifted his weight and plopped himself down, lying beside Luke on the wooden floor.

Luke turned his head slightly to the side to get Michael’s attention before a wide smile spread across his face.

“So, are you ticklish?”

Michael slapped Luke on the shoulder.

“Shut up, Luke.” He said before pressing one more soft kiss to Luke’s lips.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all liked it!! let me know what you thought on my [tumblr](http://rejectluke.tumblr.com/ask) woo, hopefully i'll be writing more soon!
> 
> ALSO shameless plug but my first ep is up on itunes so if you'd like to check that out [here](https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fight-ep/id924677509) you can :-)


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